They say home is where the heart is. Well, EG couldn’t have felt more at home in Manchester last week as we embarked on our first-ever regional Tech Live event – all thanks to keynote speaker Michelle Rothwell.
The entrepreneur and 2017 EG Rising Star bounded in sporting a red-and-white dress emblazoned with the word “LOVE” over a huge heart. “This is to show my love for all things EG,” she said, so enthusiastically it was hard not to get into the spirit – even at 7.30am. Manchester-based Rothwell, who runs her own development company, Watch This Space, took to the stage to chart how she got to where she has – and left the room open-mouthed as she revealed that, on top of running her business, she has spent 18 months of the past 24 pregnant. “I have a 14-month-old and a six-week-old at home,” she said. “I dare anyone to come over to my house. It’s like a war zone!”
Top cop-ywriting
Thanks to Alison Hernandez, elected police and crime commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, for the EG plug on DevonLive this week. In her article, Hernandez explains why her force is selling off some of its police stations and advertising the sale in EG: “For sale, one ageing police station, single owner since new, wonderful location close to the centre of the cathedral city of Exeter. That’s not quite how the ad in Saturday’s Estates Gazette reads, but that was the gist of the notice that marked the start of the process to sell Exeter’s Heavitree Road Police Station.” She does a good line in copywriting (we’ll forgive the use of our old name), though agents Herridge Property Consultants thought a different approach might appeal to EG readers when the ad ran last weekend: “City centre development site adjacent to Waitrose”.
The good old days
Diary is normally sceptical of phrases such as “the good old days”, where the occasional rose-tinted memory can gloss over things like rampant sexism, poverty and quite treatable diseases such as smallpox. However, this week, on receiving a commemorative hardback book celebrating Barratt’s 60th anniversary, Diary was very happy to see, on page 37, something unquestionably good about the old days. The 1970s, to be exact, when nobody thought twice about company resources – the Barratt helicopter – being spent on such worthwhile pursuits as a dragging a water-skier round a lake. It’s a relief to know that corporate governance means thousands of pounds can’t be squandered on pointless publicity stunts these days…
It’s bad news for the English game
When not casting wry sideways glances at the commercial property industry, Diary can often be found playing five-a-side football. Indeed, it has devoted half its life to the weekly task of organising “fives” – a process that has evolved over the years from actual phone calls (remember those?), to text messages, to a thriving WhatsApp group. So, it is with dismay that we hear that football pitch operator PowerLeague is closing sites because of financial troubles. Dismay, and surprise. After all, as anyone in Diary’s position will know, a good five-a-side pitch is like gold dust. Once you have one for a prime slot, you have to cling on to it, because there’s always a queue of teams lining up to steal it from you. Apparently, the company suffered from cancelled games during March’s “Beast from the East”. Diary wouldn’t know anything about that, as Hardly Athletic play right on through stormy weather. Fingers crossed PowerLeague manages to do the same.
A man of letters
Last Saturday marked 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and we have been commemorating the anniversary of that world-changing event with extensive coverage online. Others on Twitter have been doing so by tweeting things that didn’t exist on that fateful day in 2008. Simon Ricketts of Town Legal took the opportunity to list acronyms and initialisms added to the planning lexicon in the past decade: “DCOs NSIPs NPSs CIL MDCs NAs NDOs ACVs CRtBOs NPPF VBC PiP CAs NIC MHCLG HE (x3)”. At least, we think that’s what he was doing. It could just be a cat walked over his keyboard. Or he accidentally posted his ultra-secure online password.
Cash me backside
Diary was somewhat taken aback to receive an email titled “Backside request”. Naturally, we were all set to give the cheeky sender the bum’s rush when further scrutiny allowed us to get to the bottom of the matter. What they were in fact after was a “back copy” of the magazine. Damn you, autocorrect. Lest they become the butt of many jokes, we won’t name our dear rear-end sender. Far better for all involved to put the matter behind them.
To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@egi.co.uk or tweet @estatesgazette
